Internal combustion engines having the above ignition means (i.e., spark-ignited internal combustion engines) are conventionally designed. In general on this kind of internal combustion engines, ignition means (for example, spark plugs) generate electric discharge in gas in a combustion chamber and ignite the gas by heat due to the electric discharge.
One of conventional ignition control device applied to internal combustion engine having spark plugs (hereinafter referred to as “conventional device”), for example, is designed to generate electric discharges multiple times in gas in a combustion chamber within a predetermined ignition period in a cycle including intake stroke, compression stroke, power stroke and exhaust stroke. In particular, the conventional device focuses on the first discharge among the multiple discharges and determines whether or not the first discharge is normally generated. The conventional device immediately stops the first discharge in the case of determining that the first discharge is not normally generated, and then starts charging for use in the second discharge to generate the second discharge as soon as possible. As a result, the conventional device reduces the degree of negative effects on the ignition of the gas in the combustion chamber (e.g., lack of stability of output torque of the engine caused by the abnormal ignition of the gas) as a result of the abnormal first discharge (for example, see the patent literature 1). As described above, an appropriate ignition of gas in combustion chambers is required.